This is a photo of an unfinished classroom building. Because the Toledo Secondary School is a community based school, not governmentally funded, they are waiting on the funds in order to finish the building. These funds will eventually come from community members and the building itself is also done by the local people. This type of community involvement is essential as it forces the parents to take an active role in their children's education and other community members can see the fruits of their labor and take pride in the education their children are receiving. However, with the local economy as it is, it is very hard to raise sufficient funds. On top of the demands of expansion, there is also the demand for textbooks and other resources that are often taken for granted...things as simple as test tubes and bunsen burners are scarce in Tanga and there are only three science labs in existence here. Which means, anyone who wants hands-on practicals, like mixing chemicals and doing equations and such things one would expect in every school, the children must go to one of the three labs and pay extra for this equipment. Having a lab here at the Toledo Secondary School is one of Mr. Ndauka's goals for the future development of the school!
This is a photo of Mr. Ndauka and I responding to the comments on my blog about the interest in corresponding with students from the Toledo Secondary School! Mr. Ndauka was very pleased to see such interest and he is very eager to start this relationship and have his students actively correspond with other students through pen pal relationships, exchanges and other types of relationship enhancing ideas! We thank you very much for your interest and look forward to the future of this correspondence!